More Direct Damage spells

Zakeros

What I always wanted for my mage/priest is more Direct Damage (DD) spells. On the low levels it's quite fine, Magic Missiles, Fire Arrows or Melf Arrows. But, higher the level, harder to find decent DD spells that'd hit ONLY one target. I'm talking about kind of spell that deals damage, not Pertification or Dezintegration. Wouldn't it be cool to get some non-AOE (since there's alot of em') offensive spells? Like, for example, the one from the mod - Mordenkainen Force Missiles, which were overpowered, but still really cool.

HeroicSpur

Yes.

Aliteri

Well, its not like you'll ever stop using Magic Missile - there's not much else to memorize on first level. And if I do remember things, some pre-emptive 'cursing' and dispelling followed by a finger of death works wonders.

HeroicSpur

@Aliteri: It's very disappointing as a wizard who can cast finger of death (e.g. when fighting undead), that the best spell available to you is magic missle (for direct damage).

Zakeros

Yes, but still, Finger of Death isn't damage dealing spell, at least it's not the main goal of it. What I would want is simply including more spells like Magic Missile, as in Neverwinter Nights or Baldur's Gate mods.

Aliteri

@Zakeros

Well, I'd suggest consulting the Bible (code for D&D 2nd edition rules and supplement material) as a nice and easy way to start - maybe there's such a thing as a higher level form of Magic Missile in there.

nulspace

Are you specifying ranged spells? There are a few "up-close" spells (Chill touch, ghoul touch, etc) that are single-target damage dealing, but require the caseter to be up close.

For a quick reference, PlanetBaldursGate has a pretty good spell summary page:
http://www.planetbaldursgate.com/bg2/character/spells/wizard/

I personally find that between the Priest and Wizard spells, including low-level spells that become more powerful as the caster gains levels, I have more than enough single-target damage happenenig. Just my $0.02

Zakeros

@Aliteri
Sadly, I don't have access to one, I'm just pointing out what I would like to see in EE And since I know Neverwinter Nights holds several Direct Damage spells, I bet the 2nd edition can also bring more.

nulspace

@Aliteri - first level spells, what about Chromatic Orb?! Poor man's Finger of Death!

Aliteri

@nulspace And a true wizard never finds himself poor on his spells. Better force the sorcerer to spend his spell points. And the figher to spend his hitpoints.

~.^

Zakeros

@nulspace

I've never taken them, never even considered, since it isn't the best thing for your mage to break the line and go to close combat... I mean come on, when you're fighting some battle, the front line is doing what they can, rangers and clerics also have their jobs, and mage should just stay and cast Magic Missile all the time? He can't use AOE, as it would damage fighters. I know there's alot more he can do, but it is really common for mage to just sling the enemies from the rear...

nulspace

100% in agreement, just clarifying

AndreaColombo

I could look some spells up in the AD&D Player's Handbook tomorrow, see if some nice direct damage spells are there for higher levels.

kamuizin

above lvl 3 dmg spells:

sunfire, cone of cold, cloud kill (5° circle spell).
chain lighting, death fog (6° circle spell).
delayed fireball, prismatic spray, finger of death (7° circle spells).
horrible thing, incendiary cloud, the lesser hand spell that i forgot the name (8° circle spells).
level drain, wail of banshee (well it kills no?), the big hand spell that i forgot the name, meteor shower (9° circle spell).
Meteor strike, dragon breath, the trowing blade thing that i forgot the name (superior circle spells).


Well i probally forget some spells i believe but i don't think that is few spells cos unlike other games a mage in dungeons and dragons don't focus in a spell kind exactly (damage, summon, alteration, ect...) so i believe the game is balanced. if ppl yet want more spells just take the ones from icewind dale (will feed the 4° circle that don't have dmg spells) and planescape: Torment spells list. The engine of those games are the infinity engine too, so i believe that will be easier to convert those spells to baldur's gate with less bugs, unlike other games spells.

Zakeros

@kamuizin

They're almost all AOE or other kind of spells.

Coriander

@kamuizin Those spells do damage but I think the request is more for a ranged single target spell that causes damage instead of status effects. Like using a sniper rifle instead of a grenade or flamethrower.

(I apologize for the FPS analogy)

nulspace

@kamuizin, i believe @Zakeros means single-target spells, not AoE spells (since most AoE spells will deal damage to your allies as well as your enemies)

kamuizin

Ok i can see @zakeros point now, so the second part of my old post is a valid answer for this problem:

Import the spells that exist in icewind dale and planescape torment. Icewind has a major single target spells in 4° circle for exampe (but i don't know if is worth trade stonekin for an ice lance, that's for ppl decide ingame however).

AndreaColombo

IIRC, Trent Oster said on Twitter they do not have access to IWD and Ps:T content, yet.

kamuizin

@AndreaColombo I'm speculating here, but if WotC assign copyrights to beamdog for the dungeons and dragons title any spells in Dungeon and dragons p&p are valid to be used no? If the spells used on PS:T and Icewind Dale come from the p&p books of dungeons and dragons their use will fall on the license agreement of D&D with WotC, no?

AndreaColombo

@kamuizin I believe you are correct. However, Beamdog cannot just borrow the implementation of any given spell from other IE games. Rather, they should recreate them from scratch, including visual effects.

Tanthalas

They "might" be limited to 2Ed spells, but since Monks are in the game, I'm not sure.

AndreaColombo

Even if they could use 3rd Ed. or 4th Ed. spells, converting them to 2nd Ed. may be fairly tricky (I'm not even sure it is possible to convert 4th Ed. to 2nd Ed.).

Grammarsalad

... (I'm not even sure it is possible to convert 4th Ed. to 2nd Ed.).

Other than the tome of battle like warrior love I don't see why they would want that

Fornost

Dragon's breath and comet are pretty usefull since they dont damage party members at all and deal massive damage + knockback but the bad thing's that they are 10th lvl spells :-) (9th for wizards correct me if im wrong)
Would love to have more damagespells for single targets only though...sry for english

Kore

Melf's Minute Meteors is a damn handy spell. Just throwing a few scrolls for it into BG1 would be a good start.

caruga

Why put single-target damage spells > lv 3 when <lv 4 has it covered?

Zakeros

@Fornost
Dragon's breath is AoE, as you said, so no point bringing it up

@Kore
Melf's Meteors aren't exactly Direct Damage, it's more like several considerable strong sling ammo's

@caruga
<lv4 spells aren't covering it well - because they're <lv4 spells. You get my point? I want my mage to have hell of an arsenal at the end of the game, so he could cast similar to Jon Irenicus on the cutscenes - he's doing a lot of DD spells